An artist's conception shows a black hole surrounded by a disk of hot gas, and a large doughnut or torus of cooler gas and dust. The light blue ring on the back of the torus is due to the fluorescence of iron atoms excited by X-rays from the hot gas disk. The illustration also shows jets of high energy particles (white) that are propelled away from the vicinity of the black hole by intense electric and magnetic fields. These jets can produce gamma rays. Click to enlarge.
